Upcoming Shows and Jewelry Events

MECA/SEA SHOW!
I am so excited to announce that I will be participating in this year's MECA/SEA Holiday Show the weekend on Dec 2-4th! I will be sharing a space with a great artist, Liz Prescott. I am looking forward to having some new items to share with the shoppers of Portland! The MECA/SEA Holiday Show is held at the East End School and to say it gets busy in there would be an understatement! So excited to get a chance to share my work!

PRIVATE PARTY!
Bonnie, a good friend of mine, has been kind enough to host a Maggie Style Jewelry Party at her home for her colleagues in mid November. Should be a great time for sure. As I begin to write about all these events, I realize that I have a lot of work to do!!!

WEDDING LINE!
I am one of the organizers for a local Maine Women's Wedding Expo that will be held in January. I have been asked to create bridal party gems for an upcoming wedding, so I have decided to expand my line to include some new fantastic tumbled glass and fresh water pearls jewelry perfect for any wedding day.

The LocalMotion Show was a great way to get me motivated to start finding venues for my work. I showed two paintings at the Meg Perry Center in Portland for the event. There were performances all night. I wasn't able to make it through the whole night because of an oncoming cold that seems to be running rampant around these parts.

The piece shown above is called "Eye on the Prize". It's another in the series of home ownership in these tumultuous economic times. So often do we block out the ugly side of owning a home to keep our vision clear on the possession of something we can call ours.....or the bank's....if you really think about it long enough!

So my next deadline is October 31rst for the RISD New England Biennial. I am excited to get to work on some new pieces for the show!

www.maggiebokor.com

The website is up and running. You can check out my latest paintings and jewelry creations. I am still working on the bio and links for Nia...so stay tuned! This has definitely been a labor of love and I am so excited about the look of the new website. I designed the tree myself. Thanks for the inspiration from my friend, Catherine. I love the idea of roots to define where I started, the trunk of the tree swaying as if dancing through life and the limbs all bearing the fruit of my ideas. A little hoaky for sure, but it works!
www.maggiebokor.com

It's all coming together nicely. The website will be up within the next week. I have an opening this Friday, so I have to get back to the studio to finish my work for the show. There's an opening at Magnolia's Cafe where I have some of my glass jewelry, so I owe Catie a visit to stock up before her event.

It's been a busy time. The sun is up and the possibilities are endless! Think I am finally starting to embrace fall!

Maggie Bokor Website update!

The final layout is coming together nicely for my website. Thank you Angela Smith! She is doing a killer job and I am so grateful to be working with her. You can check out her other work at http://www.angelskill.com/ . Very cool indeed!

A song with Sean Mencher and the Rythm Kings

Saturday night, I had the honor to sing a Patsy Cline tune called " Gotta lot of Rhythm in my Soul" with my friend Sean Mencher and his Rhythm Kings at the Bramhall Pub in Portland Maine.

If you have never been to the Bramhall Pub, it's a treat. It's located on Congress under the Roma restaurant. The shows always start at 10pm after the restaurant ends their dinner service. There's a great bar, pool table and pub atmosphere down at the pub. Sean Mencher and his Rhythm Kings are absolutely fabulous and I was honored to share the stage for my song. Check out this great rockabilly band at www.myspace.com/seanmencher.

A day of photographing work

I have to admit that I have been avoiding photographing my work, but as the reality of my website draws near....I know it's time to get to work. I have been looking for some lighting solutions at home and finally found a system that works.

Last weekend I participated in the End of Summer Sale at Artascope Studios in South Portland. It was great. I shared a table with Sue Drown Trout which worked out fabulously. She was able to man our booth in the morning while I taught Nia and I came in for the afternoon. It was a very successful day. You can check out the blog I wrote about the event at http://www.artnightout.blogspot.com/

In any case, I designed a new display to show off my wares using lots of beach sand and a little imagination. After the show, I wasn't sure how I wanted to store the display. So it's in my studio and I decided to try it out as the background for my jewelry and val la! Pure magic! So glad I am able to be self sufficient and get my jewelry on the web and finally into my etsy store. Patience is definitely a virtue I am still reaching for. Thank goodness for resourcefulness!

Localmotion Art Opening: October 3rd

I will be a part of the LocalMotion Art Show: Performance during First Friday Art Walk in Portland this October.

"LocalMotion is a ‘mosaic’ of Maine artisans exploring the social, political, cultural and personal aspects of everyday life in the 21st Century as influenced by the interweaving of global and local issues. It will feature sculpture, craft, apparel design, painting, prints and photo. We will be raffling off artwork. Performance starting at 8pm will feature Port Veritas Poets, lots of local writers and musicians, an Add Verb Skit about gender awareness, dancing, drag, and more. This show is in conjunction with the Tina Smith Beacon for Change Campaign. Tina is a Green candidate for City Council At-Large."

Sounds pretty interesting and I am glad to be a part of it. I am submitting a few paintings. I have already decided on "Stilts" as one of my pieces and I am deciding on using an older painting that would work well with the theme of this event called "Neighbors". My goal is to get into the studio over the next week or so and start the second painting in the home series.

Friday, October 3, 2008
5:00pm - 10:00pm

The Meg Perry Center
644 Congress St Portland, ME

www.maggiebokor.com website update

It's all coming together nicely. With the wonderful assistance from graphic designer, Angela Smith, I am finally getting ready to launch http://www.maggiebokor.com/. My next step is to get my etsy store up and running. With upcoming shows and submissions, I am staying busy. This has been a labor of love and I will be so grateful to see it come to life! For now, you can check me out at http://www.maggiestyle.com/.

Color revisited

Playing with color and clouds these days. Fascinated by creating movement with paint and capturing a vision from my mind's eye. There is a real freedom in working with the sky because of the steady change in nature. Unlike copying a photograph or imagining a single moment in time, the constant tiny shifts work like my brush stroke across the canvas.

September-Studio redesigned!

Summer has been extremely busy up here and we are finally starting to see things slow down a bit with visitors to our home. Over the past few weeks, Greg and I have been redesigning the rooms to create a better home office and completely empty my studio of anything not pertaining to paint or metals. It feels absolutely wonderful.

My dear friend Celia was able to visit twice in the past two weeks and witness the transformation. I owe my new found energy to finish each room to Celia and to mother nature. A flood in the basement a few weeks ago allowed us to reorganize. It's ready for clay when I say go.

Been working on a new series of paintings depicting my relationship with home. This one has gone through a few major shifts and I feel good about the end result. I call it Stilts. I will be putting this into my next gallery opening in October in Portland. It talks to me about the precarious nature of home ownership. There is a tricky balance between what we desire, how much it may cost you in time, money and resources and the real need of shelter.

Silk Tie Necklace Line is ready!

I was so inspired by the lavender silk tie necklace I made for Sheila in the last posting, I immediately starting playing with color combinations and adding large fresh water pearls to a few versions. It's a blast looking for the right cast glass piece to stack. Each tumbled glass bead has irregular edges, so it's like putting a delicate puzzle together as I line up my glass. I finished these necklaces off with a jump ring so that the silk tie can be replaced with another chain. The ties are versatile and can be worn as a choker, a longer pendant necklace or even a bracelet wrapped around your wrist a few times. I spent time finding the right tie-dyed silk tie for each necklace that would reflect the strength of its color and create a finished piece. Now I will need to photograph them for my etsy page.....it's all coming together.

Silk Ties

Silk Ties:
Sometimes it takes an event to help you become inspired again with your work. I made this stacked glass necklace for my friend Sheila's birthday....which is today! I was excited to start working with an alternative material to the silver chain and experiment with color. These hand dye silk ties come from a vendor in California. Their ties are beautiful. I have already made another 10 stacked necklaces to match up with more ties. I designed the glass pendants with a closed ring so they can slide off the silk tie for cleaning or for sharing with other necklace options. I am excited to add this to my line. Thank you, Sheila..and Happy Birthday!

3 Pears ready to be framed

I have fallen behind with my blog and decided it was time to commit a little time to my life at the studio and share where I am. I posted a picture of the 3 pears a while back while they were still in process. Some good friends of mine asked to purchase the piece for their anniversary. I was able to hand deliver the final rendition last month during a visit down the coast. It was wonderful to see how much they liked the image and I have already received reports about the framing decisions. Can't wait to see it framed!

I have been working on painting daily. My current studio doesn't have the best light and also home to my computer which can act as a big distraction, so I am working on another temporary solution while we design and build the final studio in the garage. Learning lots about patients through my paints and my dreams of the garage studio. It will happen soon. I would love to be able to open it up for studio visits and studio shows. All in good time.

Tumbled Glass Jewelry Line Expanded

My "Maggie Style Jewelry" line of tumbled glass is growing. I have continued to refine the look while having some fun with color combinations and playing with pearls and matte silver beads as accents with the beautiful glass. Summer is upon us and it's time to get outside and celebrate by wearing some great color and soaking up some sun. Although the sky is overcast while I write, the weather is always changing and warming up each day.

So I wanted to introduce some new bracelet and earring ideas I have been working on. I started with the nugget series shown plus my teardrops and loops, but I have recently expanded my earring collection to add the stacked pearl drop series. I am having a ball playing with the colors and shapes of these organic cut glass beads. There is an interplay with the free handed geometry of the glass with the delicate pearl. They are the smallest and lightest of all the earrings and have a delicate feel to them. I like having a variety of colors to choose from on a daily basis and now with the four designs, I feel confident to start marketing a more complete line.

Toggle bracelets are another great addition to my collection. I love the weight of the bracelets with all the lovely tumbled glass beads interwoven with freshwater pearls. They are fun, funky and versatile. There is something very satisfying about sensing what you are wearing. I feel very snazzy some days when I have on a new necklace or bracelet. Looking forward to getting my new work to the shops. I call this one the "Fire & Water" bracelet.

Birds and Pear Paintings in progress

Working with pears over the past few weeks. Lots of play with color and form. The canvas I chose is 8" x 16". I like working on the elongated rectangular form. Still working on building up volume while capturing the characteristics of each pear. This piece was create on the last day of my acrylics class over at Artascope Studios in South Portland with Liz Prescott. She is a fantastic teacher and I have learned so much in such a small amount of time. I look forward to the weekly critiques and dialogue about the work. I am looking forward to building my studio where I will have space to work on a few pieces at a time and go bigger!

The birds painting started as a still life of the same pears painting shown above. Pears with stacked books. My still life was edging on realism and not very interesting, so I let go and started painting from the gut and there you have it.

Tumbled Glass Necklace

I have tumbled sea glass on my mind. Working on my new line of sea glass jewelry over the past few months. Working on the final details to streamline my pieces and get ready for shows. I am investigating local galleries that may be a good fit with my work. I am interested in finding out information about the right shops down the East Coast. My full line of necklaces, earrings and bracelets would work well in any coastal area. The glass is gorgeous on and works well for dressy occasions or a fun day on the beach. I love the translucent quality of the tumbled glass. I have been wearing my work every day to get a feel for it and start to sense a response. This piece above was especially made for a good friend. Can't wait to see it on!


The tumbled glass comes in all different shapes. I carefully choose each piece to respond with the adjoining glass. The silver spacer beads are cast sterling silver. Each one is individual cast and adds to the unique nature of the necklace. My chunk chain is a alternating 8mm and 11mm hammered diamond link and the square toggle at the top adds to the playfulness while keeping the necklace feeling sophisticated and sensual. I love the weight of the glass and the lightness of the chain. I love its overall versatility.

Rock Painting March 2008

I am having a great time working with acrylics these days. This is my latest creation. It's a good break from my daily grind of marketing and jewelry business madness. There is a real process to painting that involves layering and letting go. You will find you will love the piece and before you know it, the details or brush strokes that you thought were so important will be covered up with a new color. You can give in to frustration or casually go with the flow. You will always find your way back to the aha! moments! I will have to add this one to the maggiestyle.com website once I know I am truly finished.

Etched Copper Fresh Water Pearl Earrings

Working on some new ideas for my etched copper line. This delicate pair of earrings was designed to match a beautiful copper moon pendant necklace that I sold at a home party in February. The copper dangles offers a faded image of branches topped off with a fresh water pearl. I will work on another pair this week to start to play off the texture and color of the copper. Oxidizing my work can add depth to the copper, but I sometimes like to stay with the original shiny surface and allow the natural patina to take place.

I am getting really excited about branching off with my etched copper pieces and working on refining my line of tumbled sea glass as well. Looking into upcoming shows to enter. Looks like I will head down to the Rhode Island School of Design alumni sale in the fall. Should be full to back there after all these years. Looking forward to seeing what everyone has been working on and celebrate my new lines!

March in like a lion, out like a lamb? One can only dream

I must admit that I do like watching the snow flakes fall outside my window. The winter landscape is truly breathtaking, so serene and peaceful. With that said, March 1rst has shown up with all the signs of a never ending winter in Maine and I can only dream of the days of green and growth, flowers and spring. March is a tricky month in the north. The saying goes, that if March show up like a lion, it will leave like a lamb.....intriguing concept....will have to just wait and see. Unpredictable as it may, there is a need to embrace the change and use the time to go inward.

Feeling bummed that that there is no Nia today. I can always count on Nia to rebalance and energize me through these dark times. I am so blessed to be teaching this movement and would recommend everyone to find a studio offering this barefoot experience. http://www.nianow.com/.

Working on my studio today. My husband has moved his shop to the garage, so I am commandeering the office for jewelry production. I am branching out to http://www.maggiestyle.etsy.com/ and will be selling my new pieces within the week. I have found some fabulous tumbled sea glass to work with and the colors are outstanding. I have been working on etching some new copper pieces and I am just waiting to combine them with the hand dyed silk ties I found over at Artascope Studios yesterday. Looks like the Jewelry trip to Tuscon was a big hit. http://www.artascope.com/ Great resource for materials, art classes and amazing workshops. I may be a little bias since I am a steward and teacher over there, but so be it.

Looks like the snow is slowing down. Wonder if my snow dog is buried in the front lawn. Now that was a fun way to play in the snow!